Life is Strange
Release date: Jan. 30, 2015-October 20,2015
Genre: Graphic Adventure
Number of players: 1
Rating: M 17+
Publisher: Square Enix
Developers: Raoul Barbet
Michael Koch
Director: Dontnod Entertainment
Artist: Michel Koch
Kenny Laurent
Amaury Balandier
Life is strange follows the story of Max (Maxine Caulfield) as she comes back to Oregon to attend Blackwell Academy for her senior year. she begins to experience her first glimpses of her powers via visions come to her while she fell asleep in the classroom of the prominent teacher Mr. Jefferson who constantly pushes Max to get more into her artwork to which Max always shies away from. Max also rekindles her relationship with her childhood friend Chloe Price. The game really beings to pick up after Chloe’s life gets put in danger and coincidentally Max sees a butterfly at the same time, to which tie into Max’s powers; learning she has time control abilities which she uses to save Chloe from the fatal incident. But as Chloe and the player soon learn, her new-found powers are more cons then pros. Not only are her powers tied to a supernatural hurricane head towards Arcadia Bay but you get to experience (In certain occasions) the drastic alternate realities you create.
When it comes to game-play in Life is Strange, it’s very simple in nature. It’s a very story heavy game with a fairly linear path, there isn’t much out of the way of sandbox exploring by that I mean you as the player can explore to the benefit of further lore into the story and deeper investment into characters. With only a single player you can then understand why the story is so damn good in this series. I lowkey call it a Interactive simulator myself just in a light-hearted fun way, poking at the lack of over all Action-Adventure in the overall game. The pace of Life is Strange is a steady one, It’s not too slow but not a short story either. Maybe a close way of describing is similar to an Oxygen drama movie. The game outside of the main story doesn’t offer any kind of other modes such as a multiplayer mode as it isn’t needed and really wouldn’t make too much sense. A feature I would’ve loved to have seen is a Final Fantasy XV style camera capture that tied into how people saw you throughout the game would have been a great side idea. Maybe it was but got scrapped last minute, seeing as that kind of thing happens all the time in gaming. To have NPC characters glimpse back through photos of you may or might not have taken with them is always a what if scenario that runs through my mind cause it’s interesting to know how the lead developers would’ve incorporated it into the game.
Life is Strange is decent in length give or take depending on your play style, if you’re a rusher than you can easily finish this game in a good 20 hours of play time. I find myself needing to say this took me about a full weekend to beat just a lot to do with my work schedule at the time, but a lot of the time it’s just cause I’m fairly a slow gamer who likes to try and Louis and Clark my way around games especially when it comes to non-Action-adventure games like Life is Strange, the telltale’s series and Project solus. I take my time with games of this nature to give myself time to break down, the events in each episode. The game has two endings (neither of which I will spoil), which depending on what you choose in your previous game then it’s worth another play through. If you’re a completionist / achievement hunter ( by the way achievements are attached to the episodes, so there is that) than replaying through can probably open more of the story to you. That’s if you happen to miss any interactive scenes or objects or really just skipped over NPCs who could offer more insight into the games lore and world.
The story to Life is Strange is the foundation, It’s the glue that holds the whole game together as the game isn’t sitting in some dynamic 4k Ultra 120 fps.
I geek out over Max, mostly because she is such a normal person prior to her receiving her abilities. I’m aware of Chloe being beloved due to her punk attitude, but to me she comes off as bitter kid, holding grudges and wrapped up in a fantasy world like a good chuck of teens are “It I only run away…everything will be fine” not opening up to her mother; Even in some cases dragging Max down with her. I just think Chloe sucks as a standard for friendship but the story without her wouldn’t be the same. How their friendship works is what keeps me coming back to see how the story ends.
*Greatly Recommended
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